El Paso's Chihuahuas put on a pair of shows for their fans on a pleasant July Thursday night -- a baseball show, then a fireworks show.

The baseball show was a good one, one that nudged the 10,135 fans to the edge of their seats late. The Chihuahuas offered some good early pitching, some good early hitting, some fine defensive moments, some good late pitching and, most exciting of all, a pivotal long ball on their way to a 7-6 win over Albuquerque at Southwest University Park. It was the largest crowd of the season at the beautiful new ballpark.

Starting pitcher Chris Smith struck out the side to open this show and then Tyler Greene laced a hard single to left and Jeff Francoeur tattooed a line drive high off the left field wall for an RBI double, giving El Paso an early 1-0 lead.

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Smith then retired the Isotopes in order in the second and Jonathan Galvez singled to left and Cody Decker cranked a double in the left center field gap to plate Galvez. Rico Noel had an RBI single, Jace Peterson added an RBI ground out and, presto, the Chihuahuas appeared to be cruising, leading Albuquerque 4-0.

But this is baseball and these are two pretty good baseball teams and life is never quite that easy when you get that mix.

The Isotopes chipped away, and leveled this game 6-6 in the top of the seventh.

No worries.

With two out in the bottom of the seventh, Galvez stepped into the box.

"I was looking for a fastball in and he threw me a fastball in and I put a good swing on it," said Galvez, who was just chosen to the Pacific Coast League All-Star team.

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Indeed, he did.

Galvez started the fireworks early with a line drive, a ripped rocket, that just cleared the fence at the 392-foot mark and the Chihuahuas had the lead again ... one they would keep.

El Paso reliever Branch Kloess retired the first Isotope in the top of the eighth, then plunked Delvis Morales with a pitch, putting the tying run aboard. Kloess got Griff Erickson to fly out to right and then Morales decided to put himself in scoring position, attempting to steal second. Bad decision. Catcher Rocky Gale fired a pellet to second, getting Morales by a mile.

Hector Ambriz came in to close the ninth, retiring the Isotopes in order ... including a dramatic eight-pitch duel with Albuquerque's hard-hitting Tim Federowicz for the final out ... a strikeout to end this dance and set the stage for the fireworks.

"That was great," Chihuahuas manager Pat Murphy said. "Our crowd was amazing. You have no idea how much that helps in Triple-A baseball. We go on the road sometimes and there is nobody in the stands.

"Our pitching staff has been held together by Scotch tape," Murphy said. "So it was great when Kloess and Ambriz came in to shut it down."

After a pause, Murphy said, "Galvez is quietly putting up a real good year. He got a big hit for us tonight. It's not always Frenchy (Francoeur) or (Brooks) Conrad or Deck (Decker) or Greene. This was a good win for us tonight ... our crowd got us this win tonight."

Galvez said, "The crowd gets everybody excited, gets us to play better baseball."

And so on this night of dueling shows, it was also a dueling decision — the Chihuahuas won one for their fans and their fans won one for them.